Trouble

I read: 2 Timothy

There's a great quote from M*A*S*H where Klinger (the guy from Toledo who wears dresses all the time) is having a discussion with Colenol Potter (the head of the M*A*S*H) about love. I forget what it is Klinger says but this is Potter's response: "Listen, when you love somebody, you're always in trouble. There's only two things you can do about it: either stop loving 'em, or love 'em a whole lot more." I love that quote. Love is a wonderful thing, it's a beautiful thing, it's a crazy thing, it's a fun thing, but it's not an easy thing. To be blunt: it's a dangerous thing. A very dangerous thing.

Today, while reading 2 Timothy chapter 3, I found something that echoes this same sentiment in what Paul wrote: "Anyone who wants to live all out for Christ is in for a lot of trouble; there's no getting around it." As Christians we're called to follow Jesus and love him (there's the love) and, just like Potter, Paul spells it out: because of that love, we're in it deep. What is the trouble with loving Christ? That we aren't going to be the same as when we're started. And the things about us that are going to change are not going to be the easy things: our lusts, our selfishness, all those things we keep hidden. We have to reorder and reprioritize everything we hold dear. Our friends and family are at risk: following Christ definitely has the power to divide us from those we love most. Finally, we're going to be at odds of the world. The world has done everything it can to get rid of Christ and that includes us as his followers. He said so himself, if they come after him, they'll be coming after us. Sounds like trouble to me.

But when you're in love and it's reciprocated, you might be in trouble but you're not in trouble alone. You have that person who is in just as much trouble as you are. And if you both commit to loving each other more, that's a grand and beautiful thing. If that's human love, imagine what it's like with God: he's loved us more from the start, he's just waiting for us to try and catch up. And when we do, we not only discover more of his love, we find the love of every other believer. More love for anyone to handle and way more love than the trouble could ever hope to touch.